The Unnaturals Prequel - Cataclysm
You decide that this man clearly knows best. You gather up your tools and place them back on your belt before heading towards the door. Several people inside are still rooted to the spot, staring wide eyed at the world outside.
“C’mon! You heard him!” You shout at them impatiently. This seems to awaken a few from their daze, but others are still frozen. You shake your head at them, at this point, you’re not going to risk your life by waiting for them.
You and a few others open the door to head outside. Immediately, you are once again slammed with the intensely heated air. It almost takes your breath away.
You step out into the street and look down the road in the direction that the firetruck came from. You can’t see anything past the maze of gargantuan buildings but the sound of the howling is even more terrible out here. It sounds like a thousand… no, a million wolves, all howling together but with a much fiercer and angrier edge to it. It pierces your ears and sends a shiver through your bones despite the heat.
That is when you finally notice smoke billowing up into the air around the skyscrapers in the distance. It’s rising up into the air, creating massive grey and black clouds. It looks like an erupting volcano. The smoke is beginning to cover some of the rays of the sunlight, but instead of relief, they only add to the overwhelming heat.
You stumble back a few steps and begin to notice dots charging towards you from the streets far, far down the road. Eventually you realise that the dots are people, thousands and thousands of people running for their lives.
Just then, you hear what sounds like a mix between an explosion and a shattering of tons of some building material. Looking up at the distant skyscraper, you see it begin to tilt. To your astonishment, the building made up of nearly 300 stories cracks about a third of the way up. Within moments, the remaining ⅔ on top crumbles and plummets to the ground below. On it’s way down, it crashes into the surrounding buildings and topples them as well. The sound of the howling is replaced by the most magnificent, echoing boom that anyone on earth has ever heard. Smoke and debris flies into the air as you stare helplessly at the destruction of the city right before your eyes. You know you have just witnessed the death of easily a million human beings. Your mind cannot even begin to comprehend what it has just seen.
But even worse than that, filling the horizon in the space that was moments before occupied by the skyscrapers, you see certain death. A massive, swirling tornado of fire. A blazing storm surge the likes of which has only ever been imagined in religious depictions of Hell. It looks as though it is encompassing dozens of miles and arching several more miles into the sky. The fire is burning incredibly bright, making everything else seem darkened in comparison. The rolling waves of embers are convulsing around in circles, almost as though it were breathing. It is melting and destroying everything it touches.
Your heart stops beating for a moment and you can do nothing but stare. This cannot be real. A force this great and terrible has never been seen on earth.
You notice that you are having trouble breathing. The air around you seems like it has no oxygen in it. You remember that fire uses oxygen as fuel and in a gutwrenching moment, you realize that the incredible firestorm is pulling in the oxygen from the surrounding area. Even at this distance, you know that you will soon suffocate.
Some of the dots running towards you have stopped moving. You know that you need to escape. The need to survive finally overrides your fear and you turn away from the storm. There is only one option.
“C’mon! You heard him!” You shout at them impatiently. This seems to awaken a few from their daze, but others are still frozen. You shake your head at them, at this point, you’re not going to risk your life by waiting for them.
You and a few others open the door to head outside. Immediately, you are once again slammed with the intensely heated air. It almost takes your breath away.
You step out into the street and look down the road in the direction that the firetruck came from. You can’t see anything past the maze of gargantuan buildings but the sound of the howling is even more terrible out here. It sounds like a thousand… no, a million wolves, all howling together but with a much fiercer and angrier edge to it. It pierces your ears and sends a shiver through your bones despite the heat.
That is when you finally notice smoke billowing up into the air around the skyscrapers in the distance. It’s rising up into the air, creating massive grey and black clouds. It looks like an erupting volcano. The smoke is beginning to cover some of the rays of the sunlight, but instead of relief, they only add to the overwhelming heat.
You stumble back a few steps and begin to notice dots charging towards you from the streets far, far down the road. Eventually you realise that the dots are people, thousands and thousands of people running for their lives.
Just then, you hear what sounds like a mix between an explosion and a shattering of tons of some building material. Looking up at the distant skyscraper, you see it begin to tilt. To your astonishment, the building made up of nearly 300 stories cracks about a third of the way up. Within moments, the remaining ⅔ on top crumbles and plummets to the ground below. On it’s way down, it crashes into the surrounding buildings and topples them as well. The sound of the howling is replaced by the most magnificent, echoing boom that anyone on earth has ever heard. Smoke and debris flies into the air as you stare helplessly at the destruction of the city right before your eyes. You know you have just witnessed the death of easily a million human beings. Your mind cannot even begin to comprehend what it has just seen.
But even worse than that, filling the horizon in the space that was moments before occupied by the skyscrapers, you see certain death. A massive, swirling tornado of fire. A blazing storm surge the likes of which has only ever been imagined in religious depictions of Hell. It looks as though it is encompassing dozens of miles and arching several more miles into the sky. The fire is burning incredibly bright, making everything else seem darkened in comparison. The rolling waves of embers are convulsing around in circles, almost as though it were breathing. It is melting and destroying everything it touches.
Your heart stops beating for a moment and you can do nothing but stare. This cannot be real. A force this great and terrible has never been seen on earth.
You notice that you are having trouble breathing. The air around you seems like it has no oxygen in it. You remember that fire uses oxygen as fuel and in a gutwrenching moment, you realize that the incredible firestorm is pulling in the oxygen from the surrounding area. Even at this distance, you know that you will soon suffocate.
Some of the dots running towards you have stopped moving. You know that you need to escape. The need to survive finally overrides your fear and you turn away from the storm. There is only one option.